Category: Writing

Okay…I admit it…I need a full-time secretary to take care of all the duties I cannot handle! Job description: be in my office whenever I need you, take care of all computer and editing ‘stuff’ I cannot figure out and your pay will be a free meal. Alright, I may even be able to fit in a plate of cookies now and then. Any takers?

So, there it is, only about ten days after it went on Amazon…my second book!!! Our son-in-law was able to snatch that cover right out of CreateSpace and display it here and on Facebook for me. That is the church in Rubyville…or at least the one I see in my head. The little road leads to the Barton home and you can just make out the top of the gazebo that is in the park. Now that I am almost finished writing the second book in the series, A Place of Refuge, I almost feel like I live there rather than the small town we reside in. Just click on the little link above the books and that will take you to my Amazon author page. If you purchase Rubyville, you may download the digital version for free!

Notice the side bar to your right? I was able to actually organize it all on my own. I should say re-arrange, kind of like furniture, which I am actually pretty good at. The calendar on your left was added by me…that way you, and I, know what day it is! Now, I just need to do something about the mobile version of this site, because my daughters said it is really ugly. There is a way to change that…but it may take awhile. Cookies anyone?

After my system crash of a couple weeks ago and the loss of a manuscript…we decided to make some changes in my techno world. Not a good idea! As many of you know, I do not do very well with change and the computer stuff is about enough to put me over the edge. My daughter/editor basically said I needed a full-time office assistant to keep me out of trouble and protect my equipment. Something was said about me going back to a typewriter. Children…what do they know?

I do rely on my children, very heavily in the computer system department. Their fingers fly and work magic that I do not comprehend on any level. All my children and my sons-in-law have this ability. So, I am beginning to think it is a generational thing and not a problem with ‘moi’.

Anyway…I am trying again and my morning thus far has been rather frustrating to say the least. I now have a laptop for writing only…research if I absolutely have to, and a desktop for everyday writing, research, etc. I have written on a laptop for the past 6-7 years, so again, I am adjusting. As my daughter said last night, “Mom, just think about it like you used to.” Huh! Easy for her to say. I really do appreciate the larger monitor and I think I am going to really like the new keyboard…once I get used to it. My husband says I am hard on them…but I think this one will handle my frustrations. I do love the little ‘clicking’ sounds it makes.

My son and daughter said something about writing in ‘onedrive’ so it will be in a cloud and I can pull out my writing stuff whenever I need it, wherever I am. I don’t have a clue what that really means, but I think I have the format down. Actually, playing with clouds sounds kind of fun…they are so pretty and fluffy!

I think all of us desire the above title…a place to call home. We want to have something in our memory that evokes happy thoughts and pleasant scenes, remembered friends, and exciting experiences. For me, this is what I think about when I think of home. We can add love and security to that list.

This home is different for everyone, and may even be different within a family that grew up together. I had many houses while growing up, but only a few places really seemed like home. The atmosphere, circumstances and people in my life at that time all contributed to that feeling of home.

You all know by now that I mostly grew up in Colorado. It is a very beautiful place, with the soaring mountains to the west. I was there until the late 1970’s and to me that is very special because it was still rather small compared to today. The cities were not all run together, you could travel for miles in open country, just enjoying the scenery. I loved it when we would journey into the mountains and drive through old mining towns, seeming to hang from the edge of a precipice. I always imagined the people that lived in that forgotten town. They had once enjoyed a life there…marrying, burying, working, and raising families. Today, they are barely a memory because so many have passed on.

In my early teens, my family moved to the east coast. First Vermont and then New York…upstate New York. I loved the east coast and still do. The seasons are beautiful and each one unique. I was amazed at the history…300 year old houses?! I loved touring Boston and walking where so many people from my history books had also walked. We lived in Crown Point, New York for almost three years. It is a beautiful area there by Lake Champlain. So much history! The winters were cold and long with a lot of snow. We filled our time with sledding and ice-skating. My siblings even skated across Lake Champlain one winter. I thought they were crazy and didn’t follow. The ice-shanties speckled here and there probably gave a clue as to the thickness of the ice, but it wasn’t enough evidence for me!

I met my husband in the Hudson Valley area of New York. Another gorgeous place. I love the history there as well. Beautiful houses…magnificent mansions lining the Hudson River. Huge trees seem to grow everywhere, towns tucked between. My first book, ‘To Thee I’m Wed’ takes place in a fictional town in that area. So many of my memories of my home there are interlaced through that book.

So now, I arrive at my destination. We reside in Kansas and have for almost twenty years. The area we live in has hills and in the spring, red buds blossom, powdering the hillsides with pink. Cottonwoods grow along the rivers and in the spring, little white ‘puffs’ float everywhere. Some years, our yard is covered with these little ‘puffs’. Not a good thing for those that are bothered by them! This area also has much history. The houses are not as old and the state younger than some, but still very interesting.

Kansas also has its share of abandoned towns. People came here, full of expectations and hope. They built towns. Some were fairly large at one time, boasting newspapers, several churches, banks and schools. I drive through these lonely, vacant towns and wonder what it was like so many years ago. Rubyville – A Place to Call Home, was written about these towns. I always wonder who lived there, what they did, what they looked like. I would like to go back in time for just a bit and see the town as it was. This was the inspiration for my Rubyville series. Many people called these towns their home…some for their entire life. I pray I reach my goal of telling some of their stories so today we can experience just a bit of that life so long ago. No, the Barton and Langworthy families are not real. But I hope they become real to you as they experience life…just as we all do… and that transcends generations. Enjoy my new series!

To Thee I’m Wed and Rubyville – A Place to Call Home, Book 1 are both available at Amazon. Look for Rubyville – A Place of Refuge, Book 2, coming spring of 2016! I would love to hear from you and would greatly appreciate a review on Amazon. I DO want to know what you think! http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=deborah+ann+dykeman

I now have an Author’s Page on Amazon! You can check it out at the link below. At this site you can read my bio and see what books I have published. You can also link to my blog posts from there…and how easy is that? So, please be sure to take a look and let me know what you think! I LOVE your comments! Have a great day!

http://www.amazon.com/author/deborahanndykeman

There are days when I look back on all the technology we have and I am really ‘wowed’. When I was still in school, microwaves were just coming into homes…and my close-knit group of family and friends weren’t there yet! A TV dinner seemed like a pretty big thing for me!

Phones, as I have mentioned before in other posts, were still attached to the wall in most homes. You were really going places if you had a long cord and could walk around with it! Again, I was fairly impressed if I could stir a pot on the stove and talk at the same time. In one of our houses in my teen years, we still had a party line! It was cleared up shortly after we moved in, but I think it’s safe to say that the people before us didn’t have a problem with it.

Traveling across Arizona to California recalls signs posted in hotels and restaurants that they had air-conditioning. I know our car didn’t, so that was a FANTASTIC way to spend a meal or sleep. On the trip home with our lobster-red sunburns, the air-conditioning would have been even more appreciated. Many homes and even stores did not have air-conditioning.

Computers at school? Seriously! You took typing class and hit the return, most of the guys aiming for the trash can at the end of their desk. If you wrote a report, you wrote it over and over again in pen, hoping you wouldn’t make a mistake and have to start all over! I still marvel at the delete button!

We have so many items today to make our lives more easy and convenient…and I really appreciate them, most of the time. But yesterday, my laptop wasn’t on the top ten or even five list. Going off the grid, living in a small cabin by a stream, no phone, electricity, etc. was beginning to feel pretty good. (And in reality, I really wouldn’t have a problem with that once or twice a year to just get away from everything.) But, our son was able to come over and work diligently to try and figure out the problem. And to be fair, I shouldn’t say it took all day…just from 10 a.m. to around 8 p.m. Just enough to pretty much ruin the bulk of getting anything done.

The plus side…my laptop is running much quicker than it has in a very long time. It will actually keep up with my typing, now. Yes, that was extremely frustrating before! Our son showed me ways to be more efficient in using my laptop…and the joy on that one is still being considered. I really do understand what he is saying, but this old dog gets pretty stuck in her ways. But I guess I’m stretching my brain and it probably could use a little exercise. So…maybe I’ll get some writing done today and my computer won’t have to try and catch up with me! Have a great Saturday!

Life can be frustrating at times! We’ve all said this, thought it, maybe shouted it out and not been too pleased with our actions after the fact. Life is also not fair. Unjust actions, words and thoughts happen. That’s the way it is.

My topic for today…copyright. Last night, while checking reviews on my book, my daughter came across a site named, DJ Maza that was advertising my book for free. There was some kind of  blurb about normally having to pay for this book, but at that site you didn’t have to. As the publisher of this book, I generally know who has my books and where they are available.

So this morning, I did a little research. When my daughter tried to access this site to get ‘my’ book they wanted her to jump through a lot of hoops. She never did get to it. She mentioned that at some point, you would probably have to pay money to access something. This morning, when I went to the same site, you couldn’t find ‘my’ book. I checked all my distributors this morning, and from what I could find, DJ Maza Books was not among them. They could be at some affiliate that I am not aware of, and I didn’t try that name in a bunch of different scenarios. By that I mean: all lower case, all run together, etc.

Life is not ‘fair’, it’s not ‘just’ under man’s terms. Wrong and bad things happen. There will always be people ready to cash in on someone’s work. That’s just the way it is. Please remember, when an artist, musician, photographer, writer, etc. has work published, there are copyright laws to protect their work. People can and do steal it, but it’s WRONG.

‘To Thee I’m Wed’ is available through the sites listed here on my blog. A short list of those sites is Amazon, Barnes and Noble and CreateSpace for the printed versions. Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and some other sites for the e-version. There are many different places with the book now, so I don’t want to list them all here. For the holiday season of Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, I have lowered the price of the e-book to $2.99. If you have a business card, you may use the code on the back to get another 50% off toward your purchase. For those of you that do not have the code on a business card, the code is: DN98A. Again, this code is good through December 31, 2015. If you are a library, wishing to purchase the e-version, your price is $1.99. As far as I know, you may also be able to use the code. For those of you in the Council Grove area, ‘To Thee I’m Wed’ is available at the library, in paperback.

I appreciate you, the consumer! I appreciate all the great words and compliments given and the reviews. Please remember to view my book, and read the portion given for free from the sites I’ve listed. We can each do our small part to NOT encourage those that scam and take advantage of other people. Thank you, so much, for your help with this!

Well, after a month of a lot of ‘stuff’ happening around our house, I was able to get back to writing. It may not sound like much, but it is a huge accomplishment for me. I am working on the second book in a series of four or five. My daughter is editing the first book. Usually, if I can get into the ‘zone’ of writing I can type out about 10 pages in a day on a good day. The big obstacle lately has been being able to get into that ‘zone’.

If you write, you know what I’m talking about. This probably applies to most anything actually. You have to get into that space in time when you can only concentrate on that project. But life happens and it is difficult to put other things aside at times.

A cabin, far away in the woods at the top of a mountain sounds pretty peaceful and like a great place to be. But I wouldn’t want to be there alone for long. I would really like my husband to be there with me. He is rather low maintenance most of the time. It’s just nice to have him near by.

So, I’ll be dreaming about that cabin as I sleep tonight and of course the plot of the story I’m working on! You all have a great night as well.

When you see this stone bridge, what thoughts and feelings come to mind? Where do you think it’s headed? Is the bridge itself welcoming or sinister with the gray rock and narrow path? It’s amazing what color and lighting, temperature and smell can do to transform our thoughts.

Picture in your mind this same setting in the winter. The frozen stream below, snow-covered path and charcoal gray branches shivering in the wind. If there is bright sunlight, the snow may sparkle as well as the sugared stream. You might want to investigate, breathe deeply of the cold, clean air as you crunch along.

Springtime would bring new leaves, swaying on their tender stems, sunlight shimmering on the gurgling water rushing through the stone arch. Maybe there would be flowers, painted here and there along the path. Birds would sing happily in the fresh air, joyous for the season ahead.

Summer would be bursting with dark greens, a canopy above as you meandered along the narrow bridge. You would stop at the highest point and observe the trickling, coolness below before continuing on your stroll.

Autumn has arrived. That is what has drawn me to this picture. The leaves scattered along the path, the water reflecting the colors in the sky. I can feel the cool breeze and smell the leaves and moist earth that only emanates in autumn.

The bridge is welcoming in all the scenarios described above. But let’s think of a very dark night and our thoughts change immediately. Maybe the bridge isn’t so welcoming anymore. You may not want to proceed down that narrow path. Each ‘splash’ in the black water or ‘crunch’ in the trees beyond may send you right out of that setting! Add a ‘dark and stormy’ night with the wind lashing at your head, branches crashing to the sodden ground…you get the ‘picture’.

Colors, lighting, temperature and smells play such a huge part in my daily life. They set the tone for so many things. I have purposely set up my entire yard to partake of all those items I just listed. Each season has its own set of the items. They are comforting to me in their familiarity and give me something to anticipate with the changing of each season. Without even knowing it, I think many of us are designed that way. Some of us just wallow in it more than others! Have a Happy Autumn!

Yesterday, I received the printed version of my book to proof. I opened the box, unwrapped the brown paper around it…and there it was!

Original Font Design

New Font Design I love!!! Thank you Julia!

I wrote, ‘To Thee I’m Wed’ in 2007. For eight years I have reread, rewritten and prayed about this book, wondering if it would ever be published.

Every writer pours much of themselves into their writing. We write from our experiences, our dreams, our heartaches and our laughter.

The same is for ‘To Thee I’m Wed’. In 1994, my husband and I traveled a very rough and rocky road for almost a year. It stemmed from many situations as trials and tribulations often do. Things don’t just ‘happen’. There is usually a cause and a reason behind it. People like my sister and a friend named Vicki were there for me. They talked at all hours of the day, supported, helped with our children and corrected my thinking where need be. Believe me…it needed correcting many times!

So, in 2007, after writing four other books, I wrote ‘To Thee I’m Wed’, elaborating, thinking about what ‘could have happened’. So yes, this book has much of ‘me’ in it.

I thank God for how He worked in my life especially during that time. He helped me to grow in ways I never thought possible. He helped us to turn our lives back around and focus on what really matters. We had another opportunity, something many people never get.

Unwrapping my book yesterday, was the culmination of so many difficult times in my life. It was tangible proof of going on after testing and tribulation. For me, that was pretty emotional and awesome! I pray that those reading ‘To Thee I’m Wed’ evaluate their own lives. Think of where you are in your spiritual growth, what marriage means, what kind of sacrifices you are willing to make so you don’t become another statistic. Sometimes the right decision isn’t the easy one.

Wow! I read this post and was just so excited! It answered so many questions I’ve had about my platform and my author brand. So of course I had to share it on here! For those of you that are not writers, you probably won’t care too much, but I know there are several that would love to read this. You should check out her blog…lots of great information on there. Here it is:

I studied the neuroscience behind branding. What made content go viral? Was there something about content that the human brain reacted to positively or negatively? Was all content equal?

Source: The Secret to a Powerful Author Brand